Previs work has begun and so far it seems to be going quite smoothly. The characters are behaving well, and I’ve managed to reference everything correctly to make everything work, it’s just a matter of getting through these scenes.

I’ve been having some discussions with Debra as well about camera angles and using them to connect the audience to the character. This is because one of my opening shots was originally a high angle shot, the reason being I wanted the room to look isolated and big for when Shay entered the scene. But then she suggested to go for a low angle shot instead, so the audience isn’t so far away from the character and to make the scene more dramatic in a sense.

She used this scene as a reference to explain what she meant. In this scene the camera is almost always close to the main character “Mr Incredible”. This way the audience is brought in, to feel as if they are there with him as he breaks into the facility. She then advised that I should do the same within my film, that way you get the audiences attention drawn to the film.

After some blood, sweat and tears, the boys are finally ready for animating. I’m quite proud of myself, and very satisfied with how they come out, though there’s one tiny issue with their thumbs, as the controllers on the thumbs won’t move with the rotate tool. Which is unfortunate but I could fix it by adding a new attribute(s) moving the thumb in different directions.

But for now It’ll be good for Previs, which is the next step I’m going to take.

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Also some more good news. Thanks to the very talented Daniel Coates my grand hall went from flat boxed room, to a very, very good looking runied temple. I gave him all 4 of my basic environments on Tuesday to add some props and debris to the rooms. And he went above and beyond and created something 10x better than I could’ve made. He really managed to capture the style of my animation and applied it to the hall. He’s only completed the Hall, but he says that he has already made a start on the others, and I can’t wait to see what they look like.

The environments are pretty much done. As I’m mainly focusing on the performance I don’t really need to go all out on creating loads of props and stuff for them.

As well as this I got to pitch to the 2nd years on Thursday. I did this to try and get some assistance on my film in some areas, and I managed to get 5 responses out of it. I asked for help with some of the basic movement in the animation, which I got 2 people for. As well as that I needed someone to create a background for me and got 2 responses, which is great because I can ask both of them to have a go, then I can choose the one which fits with the scene the most. As lastly I got someone who opted to help create me a temple, which was nice but I’ve already made one, so instead what I plan to is ask him to add props to the scene to make the temple look more ruined. I’m gonna send out an email tomorrow enlisting the roles to each one of the volunteers, and by the Thursday I’ll be ready to animate.

I’ve been spending the past couple of days working with Blend Shapes and Rigging in Maya, and it’s to say it’s worked out well. I’ve used Blend shapes to create the expressions like Smiles, Blinking, Frowns, etc… which all look great, and I’ve created a skeleton with different controllers that manipulate different parts of the body, that all work smoothly. I’ve only got to add the Blend Shapes to the head controller and map the skin to the skeleton, so hopefully by the end of the week or the start of next week, both my characters will be ready for Previs/Staging.

Two brothers find themselves in a temple in search for treasure. Within the film we will see the younger brother, Kodi wanting to prove to his older brother, Shay, that he can be useful in their quests.

What happens

They enter the temple. They move through a corridor where Shay almost gets injured by a trap that Kodi set off. They find the treasure. Kodi sets off another trap that surrounds the treasure in lava. Shay, frustrated tries to acquire the treasure on his own. Kodi is left upset. Shay can’t get the treasure. Kodi comes up a with an idea. They get the treasure. Temple collapse around them. The two escape and leave into the sunset.

Some lovely visuals

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What I’m looking for?

I’m looking for 1/2 animators to help me with some of the basic movement, say when the brothers are walking around, or doing simple gestures etc…

As well as a 2D Artist to make a background for me for the final shot

And I’m also looking for someone to help with some of the lightning in the environments

Modelled and Textured in the same week, I’m on a roll. Very happy with how they came out, and look identical to the original drawings, besides the fact that they do look kind of dead. I’ve added highlights to their eyes to make them look more lively, but I think until I’ve done the blend shapes and rigging then they’re gonna look like that.

I’ve also been making some progress on the Grand Hall, I’ve added the podium as well as the back wall with the opening, and it’s looking good.

As well as this I have made some changes to the story, to cut the time of the animation. I’ve gotten rid of the beginning of the animation where they start in the forest, instead they will start in the temple. The reason for this is due to time constraints, in the original idea I had 5 environments to model and texture, and as simple as they were, it would take too much time to do. Luckily I don’t have to change to story/structure the animation that much, because I can still establish the relationship of the two brothers within the beginning anyway.

With this change I have less to model and texture and it means I can hopefully start animating a lot sooner than before.

The boys are finally modelled. Despite the fact they look like characters belonging to world of Wallace and Gromit, I’m very happy with they turned out, and how little help I needed from my tutors to create them. Now that they’re done I can move onto Texturing and rigging. I’m hoping the texturing done by the end of the week by using Mudbox, then being able to spend the beginning of next week rigging them to work, to hopefully prep me in time for the 3rd week of the semester to start animating. Fingers crossed!!!

Finally got the base model for both Shay and Kodi done. I’m quite glad with how it came out, all the edges and vertexs run smoothly along the body and there’s no creases in the model when smoothed. Now that I have this I can use the base model and copy it for modelling Kodi and because I have the base model I just need to add the details and features, which I have started with Shay already, adding the boot line, belt and brace.